I'm a food writer, and my focus here is on the business of food. I'm interested in what we eat, why we eat it, where it comes from, and how it gets to us. I'm just as fascinated in new, cutting edge food innovations as I am in ancient culinary techniques. I used to be the Food Editor at Fresh, a leading glossy food magazine in the UK. Since my move to New York City in 2008, I’ve been writing freelance from my apartment in the West Village. I’m a Contributing Editor at Fine Cooking, I’ve written for Epicurious, TheAtlantic.com, Prevention.com and Saveur amongst other publications and websites, and I have a column on Slate called the Food Examiner. I’ve been on NPR, Martha Stewart Living Radio, and WNYC Radio talking about food -related…stuff. My other blog is called Spade & Spatula (www.spadespatula.com)and is geared towards city-dwellers who love to grow-their-own and cook-their-own. I published my first cookbook called Chop, Sizzle & Stir in 2009, and am working on my second. Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NadiaArumugam

Why American Eggs Would Be Illegal In A British Supermarket, And Vice Versa

Another important distinction between European eggs and American eggs is how they are stored, and this ultimately leads back to the question of egg-washing.

Go to buy eggs in Britain, France or Italy and you’ll find them sitting on an unrefrigerated shelf, often near the baking supplies in an aisle in the middle of the store. Head to an American supermarket however, and eggs are always held in refrigerated units, like milk and cheese and other dairy products.

EU law actually stipulates that eggs “ should in general not be refrigerated before sale to the final consumer.” The regulations explain how “cold eggs left out at room temperature may become covered in condensation facilitating the growth of bacteria on the shell and probably their ingression into the egg.” Hence if a consumer picked up a carton of chilled eggs then transported them home in the car, the change in temperature would cause the eggs to sweat.

With precisely this scenario in mind, EU regulators considered it more judicious to maintain eggs in an ambient environment that resembles a “cool” room temperature from lay to shelf. In the UK, guidance set out by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers recommends supermarkets maintain a temperature of between 66.2°F to 69.8°F in the winter and between 69.8°F and 73.4°F in the summer. Room temperature is generally considered to be between 68°F to 77°F.

The USDA is just as concerned about keeping processed eggs that move from a packing facility to a store shelf to the domestic fridge at a consistent temperature. However, on this side of the waters, that consistent temperature across the board should be 45°F or lower. As a point of contrast, in Britain, the Lion Quality Code of Practice – an egg quality assurance scheme established in 1998, recommends that consumers keep their eggs below 68°F.

Why the difference? Howard Magwire of United Egg Producers suggests that the British might consider the cuticle as providing adequate protection for their eggs and so are less concerned about the need to chill them. But there’s also another vital reason. An egg isn’t just at risk from salmonella contamination when its shell is sullied with feces. Salmonella can make its way inside the egg in the reproductive tract of a hen before the shell is formed. Once this happens, no amount of washing of sanitizing post-lay will rid the egg rid of contamination.

Since the late 1990’s, British farmers have been vaccinating hens against salmonella following a crisis that sickened thousands of people who had consumed infected eggs. Amazingly, this measure has virtually wiped out the health threat in Britain. In 1997, there were 14,771 reported cases of salmonella poisoning there, by 2009 this had dropped to just 581 cases. About 90 percent of British eggs now come from vaccinated hens – it’s required for producers who want to belong to the Lion scheme. The remaining 10 percent come from very small farmers who don’t sell to major retailers.

In contrast, there is no such requirement for commercial hens in the US. Consequently, according to FDA data, there are about 142,000 illnesses every year caused by consuming eggs contaminated by the most common strain of salmonella. Only about one-third of farmers here choose to inoculate their flocks. Farmers cite cost as the main reason not to opt for vaccination –FDA estimates say it would cost about 14 cents a bird. The average hen produces about 260 eggs over the course of her lifetime.

What’s this got to do with refrigeration? In the 1990’s research showed that eggs containing salmonella did not experience any prevalent growth in the number of salmonella cells when kept at room temperature for up to 21 days after purchase. Post 21 days however, and the eggs were heavily contaminated. Further research has shown that storing contaminated eggs in cooler temperatures prohibited the growth of bacteria within the egg over a considerably longer period of time.

Without the assurance that American egg-laying hens have been vaccinated against salmonella, it’s prudent to store our eggs in the fridge, just in case.

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I think you need to stress more that the FDA data is an estimated number, not a reported one like the British data (According to the CDC there are only about 42,000 reported cases of salmonella per year, from all sources: http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/general/). This is especially important due to the believed mildness (and therefore, ignored and not reported) of most salmonella cases, meaning that estimates are far higher than reported cases (for instance, with that reported rate from the CDC the FSIS estimates there are about 1.4 million actual cases per year, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/fact_sheets/Salmonella_Questions_&_Answers/index.asp#2). It’s just somewhat dishonest otherwise.

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All my life and to this day, I collect our eggs from the Hen house, wash them and place them in a basket on the counter where they remained until consumed. Safe guards are welcome, but common sense should prevail.

Lets see here 14 cents a chicken for vacination or pay for cleaning washing electric let alone the capital needed to build the facilities and the fact we have 10 time annually sameniall poisioning verus UK highest level Seems to me they have it right. I have never washed until ready eat or refriderated any of my eggs from chicken, I eat them raw quite often and wow never been sick. The fact is with all our “cleanliness” and parina about germs in the USA we are filthy animals in general and without the expisure to bacteria our immune systems are weaker. Hopefully she does an article on raw milk and even beer soon. I know my spelling sucks the spell checker has a virus :)

Some caution is needed. The figures quoted in the article are raw numbers, NOT infection rates. Since the US population is considerably more than the UK population, it’s to be expected that our total case count would be comparably higher. I lived in Scotland, and was at first surprised to see the eggs on a rack at room temperature. Never had a problem with them at all. I do have to think that at a cost of $0.14 / hen, the US is pretty penny wise and pound foolish. That said, the FDA would probably still make producers wash the eggs, incurring all the associated costs.

Once again highlighting the ineptitude of our FDA, we obsess over the product’s sanitation when in fact the best sanitation can be done prior to it becoming a product, only that powerful lobbies keep people sick and dying over a meager 14 cents.

You are not taking into account the geographic size of the countries, the household size, refrigerator size, and buying habits of the two populations.

What seems like a 1:1 comparison in your simpleton eyes, is not. They are two entirely different beasts.

I would not be surprised in the slightest to find shorter overall storage time before actual use in the UK. In the U.S. though, we tend to manage with less trips to the markets but buying more and storing longer.

You also need to see how many eggs are bought per capita. The U.S. eats 248 eggs per capita, where the UK eats 183 per capita so the U.S. eat more eggs, increasing the overall sickness rate.

Let’s not forget, in the UK, the number of sick is not zero, so don’t pretend like it is. In the end the two methods turn out equivalent, so your “sick and dying” is just sensationalistic nonsense. You simply cannot be trusted to digest information, nor spout balanced logical and coherent opinions, Gary.

You also don’t know if you will live longer from it. In fact, sickness can increase your life span.

Lastly, illness from eggs can also be from preparation – increasing the variables immensely.

Gary, next time try to use your head instead of being happy with what you are being fed.

While your caveats are important, the numbers don’t support you as well as you think. If the FDA’s figures are correct (or at least comparable to the British ones), then the illness rate is 200 times higher in the US.

The US population is about 5 times larger than the UK’s, the egg per capita is 1.3 times higher, and let’s be generous and say the Brit hen-to-stomach time (T) is one third the US time (and let’s assume that’s it’s relevant). Even multiplying those factors together, you’d still only expect the US illness rate (per person per egg per T) to be 20 times higher.

Same thing here in Uruguay, and it was a pretty big shock when I moved here. Nowadays I buy eggs from the Egg Guy at the weekly feria, sitting out in the heat all day. He wraps them in old newspaper, no carton. I wash them just before cooking. No problem. But a big shift from buying refrigerated “Eggland’s Best” at Kroger!

Thanks for writing this. I shared it on my Uruguay blog. It would have saved me a whole lot of health angst and internet searching about “is it safe?” if it had been around in 2011 when my wife and I started our move. Loved the detail. Though I think some people will never eat an egg again, in any country, after reading some if it!

Yes! Except spell check will not catch the or/of errors. I finally had to stop reading. I almost didn’t start due to the error in the subtitle. A bolded title has no excuse for having errors. And now you see how much bad proofing detracts from the impact of your story.

I raised my own chicks and eggs for over 20 years free range and organically.I never had to wash an egg.The floor of my cement coop was covered with 3 inches of dolomite limestone and that was covered with 2 feet of hay. Sticks were crossed and tied with cord to make the roosts. The eggs were deposited cleanly on the hay and the dung went down through the hay and was neutralized by the lime. No smells, no flies. no bugs.perfection!!!They call me easy ed because I always found an easy way to do things!!! In the spring the hay and lime was tilled into my garden to produce perfect plants. Eggs raised under 24 hr. lights are poison!!!!!!!!!!!

Nadia, great article on egg production and distribution! I am glad to know why I need to keep my eggs cold in the US. I knew other places do not refrigerate their eggs, so sometimes I would just leave mine on my counter–not anymore!

I agree that there are differences between the two countries programs. The UK has a national voluntary program, the Lion program, whereas the US has the FDA Egg Plan of threats to test eggs and divert eggs should eggs test positive. Although the FDA does not require vaccination, about 95% of the shell egg producers are felt to be vaccinating, most with the SE bacterin. The pressure from FDA is leading to a rapid decline in manure test positive flocks as we saw in the egg quality assurance programs prior to the FDA plan. Washing of US eggs leads to less risk of cross contamination of other foods in the kitchen. The US also feels that refrigeration leads to less risk of temperature abuse and growth of SE inside the egg. Recent results reported by a USDA researcher showed the US rate of human cases due to SE from all sources to be estimated at 3.0 per 100,000 persons while in the EU that figure is about 9.0. Which program works best?

Note that if you bought fertile eggs, say, from a free-range farm, that the embryo can begin to grow, very slowly, above 68 degrees F. This could make hen to stomach time an important variable if you’re at all squeamish, or during the summer months. Once refrigerated below 40 degrees, the embryo dies.

We noticed a distinct difference in the taste of the eggs we had for breakfast every morning on our recent trip to the West country of England. For whatever reason, they were superior to the US eggs we were used to.

I’ve my own hens, and have refrigerated (summer heat and winter cold) and not (autumn & spring), have cleaned with a cloth if dirty and then thoroughly dried. I prefer the eggs at room temperature, fed a free-range diet as much as possible, and that the hens live in sanitary conditions. Often, the US attempts to make changes to an animal food after it is produced, rather than prevention…. hence all of the fear of raw milk. Proper sanitation and preventive measures, I believe, give us a more nutritious and equally safe food. As with so many things I wonder who is lobbying whom, and what businesses say they’d be out of business if things changed? Grow your own and/or buy locally are the best things to do… and you’ll be keeping small scale and local growers off of government subsidies, strengthening your local economy, and creating relationships you may just need seeing the state of the food system in the US. #honeybees #climatechange

Nice to see some numbers even though they are a bit skewed because of population differences etc. However, in France, Italy and other countries in Western and Eastern Europe it is the same room temp or even outside in the markets. Eggs are NOT washed Kudos to them! I run an organic farm in the United States and we do not sell washed Eggs to customers for this very reason. If we Could get the vaccine I would gladly vaccinate my flock for Salmonella to help safeguard ourselves and our customers. We keep clean nest boxes to help the hens keep their eggs clean so we don’t have to wash just dust off, then size and box. Now at the farmers markets we have to abide by our FDA so we wash, chlorine bath and blow dry the eggs before packaging and then chill to 45 degrees and keep them that cold. They all sell but if they didn’t sell I would break them and put them in the compost pile after a chlorine bath because the egg does absorb the chlorine which even in small amounts isn’t good for anyone. I won’t have my family or my animals eat that. Not even the pigs. The compost pile can give the chlorine time to evaporate into the air. I hate to waste anything here.

The killed SE vaccine is available to all producers through animal health supply companies (very easily accessed online) and highly recommended for all layers. Chlorine rinsing does not cause absorption of the rinse material if the temperature guidelines are followed. How many billions of eggs have been consumed using this washing and rinsing process with no known harm and saving millions from foodborne illness.

Doesn’t it just demonstrate the folly of Government interference on both sides of the Pond. I’m sure this is only one of myriad examples of different territories having polar-opposite rules on how a product or service must be regulated, each being justified in its own way.

If the Government officials just left us to make our own choices, the markets would necessarily self-regulate. If people got sick eating Brand A but not with Brand B, then… you can guess the rest. No Government regulation required.

I wish I could get farmers eggs. Washed eggs are dipped in chemicals I dont want to consume. Chiken factory eggs get contaminated by feces so they have to be sanitised. I want eggs from chikens who are raised traditionally. They are hard to find around here because they are in great demand.

at 0.14 per bird, it is very manageable for someone with a backyard flock to vaccinate their hens. Most backyard flocks are under 100 birds. However when you look at commercial production–tens of thousands of birds per chicken house–then vaccinating becomes an issue. The USDA and APHIS do not have the manpower or funding to check every commercial chicken producer for vaccination records. They cannot keep up with what they have to do now. The system is set up for refrigerated eggs. The refrigerated system also eliminates competition from backyard and hobby farmers because they cannot comply with USDA regulations. The signs you see out on country roads–Eggs For Sale–are most likely breaking the law.

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